Archive for the 'For Buyers' Category
Rubloff’s Mario Greco Group Named in National Ranking of Top Real Estate Sales Agents
June 24th, 2009 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market, Mario in the News, Real Estate News
CHICAGO — Showing remarkable resilience in a tough market, Chicago’s Mario Greco Group of Rubloff Residential sales agents has been named among The Real Estate Top 400 Professionals of 2008. The national awards ranking is sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, REAL Trends and Lore.
The Real Estate Top 400 honors four categories of top-100 residential agents and teams: Individual Agent, Sales Volume; Individual Agent, Transaction Sides; Agent Team, Sales Volume; and Agent Team, Transaction Sides.
For its $131 million in sales for 2008, the Mario Greco Group ranked 26th in sales volume for an agent team. Despite the down economy, in 2008 the group beat its 2007 MLS volume of $112,239,179. The Mario Greco Group also ranked 88th in transaction sides for an agent team, for the 224 buyers or sellers it represented in 2008.
“It’s a nice reward for a really good year in 2008, and also for six years of hard work in this business,” Mr. Greco said of his group being included on the lists sponsored by the Journal. “It’s nice to be recognized by your peers and by a legitimate national publication.”
Mr. Greco’s staff includes 15 additional agents. “Without them, I wouldn’t have achieved what I achieved,” he said. “It’s a testament to them that in the worst market in our lifetime, we still managed to increase our sales volume.”
He credits the team’s success, and that of Rubloff as a firm, to being a reliable brand in tough times. “We didn’t do anything differently in 2008 than we did in previous years, other than concentrate even more on pricing and customer service,” Mr. Greco said. “In any bad market, in any industry, the established brands tend to get stronger.”
At an average of $5 million, sales volumes per agent are higher at Rubloff than at any other Realtor in Chicago.
Tom Horwich, the company’s co-owner, said that Rubloff provides its agents with state-of-the-art business communications and IT support. In April of 2008, Rubloff rolled out a new version of Rubloff.com, and a new luxury-marketing program called Rubloff Residential Elite, which targets affluent buyers and sellers of luxury real estate with both print and Web advertising.
“We don’t want to be the biggest,” said Howard Weinstein, co-owner of Rubloff Residential Properties. “We simply want to be the best.”
Rubloff has been a household name in Chicago real estate since 1930, when it was founded by Arthur Rubloff. Owned by Weinstein and Horwich since 1996, Rubloff Residential Properties is one of Chicago’s most respected real estate firms. Rubloff provides real estate services to a diverse set of communities including the North Shore, Lincoln Park, the Gold Coast, the South Loop, and Michigan’s Harbor Country.
Visit Rubloff’s award-winning Web site at Rubloff. For more information on The Real Estate Top 400, visit The Wall Street Journal Top 400 Agents article.
Article Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
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3 More Signs Of A Strengthening Housing Market
June 24th, 2009 categories: Economic Recovery, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market
The housing market got another dose of good news yesterday.
According to the National Association of REALTORS, the number of homes sold in May increased for the third straight month and the national housing supply fell by 5 months.
Furthermore, first-time home buyers are accounting for nearly one-third of the market activity.
But, before we declare a bottom in housing, it’s important that we remember the First Rule of Real Estate:
All Real Estate Is Local
National housing statistics like Existing Home Sales are painted with a very broad brush. They lump disparate locales such as San Francisco and Seattle into one sample set and don’t account for regional differences, let alone neighborhood ones.
Furthermore, getting down to a city-by-city, or even street-by-street basis, we can always find homes that are selling quickly and home that are languishing. Real estate is highly local and subject to countless influences.
That said, the national data isn’t completely useless. From the patterns, we can infer that low mortgage rates, ample home supply and available tax credits are providing a quantifiable boost to the broader real estate market.
And based on recent pending sales data, we can expect June and July’s Existing Home Sales figures to be similarly strong to May.
Therefore, if you’re in the market for a new home right now — or plan to be soon — be conscious of home inventory levels in your target neighborhoods. Fewer homes on the market usually means less ability for buyers to negotiate and that leads to higher sales prices.
Plus, the NAR is reporting buyer activity up 10 percent from last year.
The housing market may not be fully recovered in every housing market just yet, but in studying the data, a lot of the pieces appear to be falling into place.
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Will Condo Market be Slower to Recover than the Market for Single Family Homes?
June 18th, 2009 categories: Chicago Neighborhoods, Chicago Real Estate News, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market
We’ve seen plenty of signs that the housing market in both Chicago and across the nation is starting to recover. Home sales are up. Sales are happening at a faster pace. This is all good news.
But one segment of the Chicago housing market will probably recover a bit slower than the rest: the condo market.
Chicago isn’t alone in this. According to a report by the National Association of REALTORS®, condominium and co-op sales were down significantly in April when compared to the same month one year earlier. The sales of existing single-family homes were down, too, but not by nearly as much.
According to the REALTORS® association, resale condo and co-op sales across the nation were down 9.4 percent in April of this year when compared to the same month in 2008.
In Chicago, especially in the downtown city market in high-rise condominiums, the news was just as bad when it came to condo sales: The Chicago Tribune reported that more than half of the new condo developments in downtown Chicago either had sales canceled or failed to make a single sale during the first quarter of 2009.
What does this mean if you own a Chicago condo? For one thing, you need to price your condo correctly if you want to sell it. There is a lot of competition on the market for condos in Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square, Lakeview, Roscoe Village and other top North Side Chicago neighborhoods - which includes a number of newly constructed units that are generally very attractive to buyers.
Secondly, your condo needs to be in top shape. There are plenty of new and nearly new condominium units on the market in Chicago’s top neighborhoods today. Your condo has to be in top condition to compete with these units.
If you’re shopping for a condominium, the sluggish sales are good news. You’ll find an incredible inventory of unsold condominiums from which to choose. Sellers will be willing to negotiate on everything from sales price to closing date. It’s a great time, then, to be buying a condo in Chicago.
Of course, whether you’re buying or selling a condominium, it’s best to work with a skilled REALTOR® who knows your neighborhood. If you’re selling, this REALTOR® will help you set the right price. If you’re buying, a REALTOR® will help you you’re your perfect condo while helping you negotiate a fair deal.
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Is a Chicago Rowhouse the Right Choice for You?
June 17th, 2009 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago Neighborhoods, For Buyers
Chicago’s North Side neighborhoods are notable for the wide variety of housing types and styles they feature. You can find luxury condos and restored Victorian single-family homes. You’ll come across townhouse developments and quaint bungalows.
All of these housing styles have their fans. The Chicago Tribune on Sunday highlighted yet another type of housing with a strong presence in North Side neighborhoods like Lincoln Park and Lakeview, the rowhouse.
You’ve undoubtedly seen these modest-looking homes. They’re attached to each other in a long row, hence the name. In fact, there’s little difference between a rowhouse and a townhouse. Usually, it’s up to the developer or builder to decide between the two names.
But whether you call these housing units rowhouses or townhouses, one thing is certain: Their popularity is growing.
These homes are especially popular among the important first-time home buyer market. There’s a reason for this: Rowhouses are usually more affordable – though not always – then either condos or single-family homes.
Besides their lower price tags, rowhouses come with other benefits. They often feature either little or no yard, for one thing. While this may seem to be a negative for some buyers, for others it’s a blessing. If you don’t enjoy spending your Saturday mowing the lawn or weeding, a rowhouse with a postage-stamp-sized yard might be ideal.
New rowhouses also tend to feature the same modern amenities that buyers can find in larger single-family homes. For instance, many rowhouses today include separate tubs and showers and large master bedrooms.
Rowhouses appeal, too, to “green” buyers. Rowhouses are usually located in the middle of walking neighborhoods. They’re often just steps from public transportation. It’s entirely possible to live in most city rowhouses without having to own a car. That is about as “green” as you can get.
Of course, rowhouses aren’t for all buyers. Some buyers will want more space than a typical rowhouse will give them. Others don’t want to be quite that close to their neighbors.
But for a specific set of buyers, the Chicago rowhouse is the perfect match.
Check out 474 W. Deming (pictured), one of our new listings and an absolutely stunning example of a Chicago rowhome.
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People Haven’t Been Moving: Will That Change Soon?
June 10th, 2009 categories: Economic Recovery, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, homeowners lately have been staying put. They haven’t been moving nearly as often as they were back in 2006 and earlier.
I wonder, though, if we’ll see this start to change. Housing sales rose in Chicago in both April and March. Are U.S. homeowners getting ready to start reserving moving vans in greater numbers again?
Personally, I think so. The housing market in Chicago, and across much of the nation, is showing signs that it is finally stabilizing. It looks like the buyers that were waiting for the perfect time to start making offers have finally swung into action. I imagine the moving companies will be busy for some time.
Mary Umberger, the real estate columnist for the Chicago Tribune, recently wrote about some interesting statistics from the Census Bureau. Researchers found that only 12 percent of the country’s overall population changed houses between 2007 and 2008.
That figure is the lowest it’s been since the Census Bureau began to collect this data in the 1940s. It’s also a drop of 1.3 percent from one year earlier. That’s a significant drop in the world of statistics.
According to Umberger’s column, a more natural rate of moving would be about 14 percent.
The reasons for this dip are fairly obvious: Home values were falling, so many sellers were only putting their condominiums and single-family homes on the market if they absolutely had to. At the same time, buyers were waiting for housing prices to fall even lower. It was the perfect recipe for a dip in the number of people moving from one residence to another.
With housing prices finally stabilizing, and buyers re-entering the market, I wager that we’ll see those Census Bureau numbers rising again. This is good news for home sellers, who have been eagerly awaiting the buyers’ return.
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